industry executives attending the International Music Industry Conference at Paradise Island, The Bahamas. He made the promotional film available to record companies and other industry organizations for preview showings at record distributor meetings, to highlight the program's ties to the record business. The conference was sponsored by Billboard magazine, which provided the program with chart information on weekly top hits. Two weeks prior to the television premiere of The Music Scene, a live preview performance of the show was staged in the ABC Television Center, Hollywood. It featured Janis Joplin, John Mayall, Roger Miller, and Three Dog Night. Much of the two-hour concert was recorded for later use on the TV show. The launch and reaction Premiering September 22, 1969, The Music Scene, said Billboard magazine, went “into high gear rapidly with the greatest soul singer of them all—James Brown—performing World.” Performances followed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Buck Owens; Oliver; Three Dog Night; and Tom Jones. The program included a special film segment from The Beatles involving their (censored) performance of The Ballad of John and Yoko, and concluded with a comedic sketch built around the No. 1 tune in the nation, Sugar, Sugar. Critical reaction to the broadcast was generally favorable. Jack Gould of The New York Times said, “The show was clearly designed for a specific generation, something that apparently may be prevalent in the coming season.” The New York Post’s Bob Williams characterized the show as “a latter day version of The Hit Parade, drawing as it did on the new top pop tunes.” Similarly, Rick DuBrow of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch labeled the broadcast “Hit Parade 1969, sharply aimed at record buyers, a unique, brave attempt to be with it musically.” Billboard’s Claude Hall concluded, “No other show on TV this season contains the same possibilities of communicating with the nation’s youth as does The Music Scene.” Lineups Chart movement of songs raised the prospect of repeat performances, and Three Dog Night repeated Easy to Be Hard in the second broadcast of The Music Scene, in a different setting. Other artists to appear that week included Eydie Gorme, Merle Haggard, Janis Joplin, Gary Puckett, and Lou Rawls. Harry Nilsson’s Everybody's Talkin' was featured via a film clip from the motion picture Midnight Cowboy. Appearing in succeeding broadcasts were Bobby Sherman, Roger Miller, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Dells, The Rascals, Steve Lawrence, Richie